{"id":37012,"date":"2014-07-31T09:19:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T13:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?post_type=feature&p=36460"},"modified":"2016-01-11T03:57:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T08:57:59","slug":"what-i-wish-id-known-when-my-child-was-diagnosed-with-type-1-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=37012","title":{"rendered":"What I Wish I’d Known When my Child was Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

Oh, the things I would tell myself if I could go back seventeen years to the time of my daughter\u2019s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and have a good talk with me.<\/p>\n

That might not do me much good now, but it might do you a whole lot of good.<\/p>\n

So here, parent\/caretaker new to this life with Type 1 diabetes, is my letter back to me, helping me see what I could not then, pointing out some things that \u2013 I hope \u2013 might make this road smoother for you.<\/p>\n

Dear Scared, Confused, Nervous, Determined Parent\/Caretaker of a Child With Diabetes,<\/p>\n

This is me, speaking to you from the future. I\u2019ve seen you go through a lot and I\u2019ve helped you figure some things out. I\u2019m back to share them with you so the road through life can be smoother. I\u2019m good that way. And Deloreans<\/a>\u00a0work! So, here goes:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s okay to cry. But only for a while. Yes, you\u2019ve been dealt a trauma that is nearly unfathomable to just about the rest of the world. Remember how you felt the first time you walked out of that pharmacy with the pile of filled prescriptions in your arms? Overwhelmed and oh-so-very-sad. But in time it\u2019s important to move on from those tears. If you find you are still crying regularly a good six months into this, find someone to talk to. Consider a small dose of personal therapy. Because this is your new life; your \u201cnew normal.\u201d And anything you can do to accept it and be good with it is only going to help your child do just that.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The internet is only good for some stuff. Like, finding friends. And programs. And cool blogs and digital magazines to read. If you are using Google or Facebook to find out things like \u201cwhat should my son\u2019s carb ratio be,\u201d or \u201chow many times a night should I be checking?\u201d do what Bob Newhart said in this skit. STOP IT<\/a>. You have a medical team. They are there for you and are learning, with you, what is best for your unique child. Don\u2019t let the good intentions of complete strangers undermine that amazing team effort. And for goodness sake, meet some people in real life.<\/em> While online friendships help, nothing replaces real, face-to-face interaction.<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vanquish fear. I know this is hard. Everything is new, and insulin is a scary medication. But listen: millions and millions and millions of people not only use it every day and live full and complete lives, they go to sleep every night while it is in their bodies and wake up just fine the next morning. Fear is perfectly normal. I remember being terrified of ketones when my daughter was young and new to diabetes. For some reason, I got in my head that the moment she had ketones she was near death. Finally, I confessed to our endo team (after my daughter began to absorb the fear I was so sure I was hiding from her). They educated me on why I did not need to be so very fearful and how I had the tools to fix ketones quickly. The same can go for any fears you have. Share them with your team and ask them to help you learn how to get past that fear. It might be the most loving thing you ever do for your child.<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just do it. Be it a family trip, a full time job you either love or must do, an away soccer match your child wants to go to but you cannot attend, a birthday party with lots of goodies \u2013 just do it. Your team is there, again, to help you come up with a plan. And while it may not work perfectly the first time, eventually you\u2019ll nail it. You want your child to be independent, brave and happy, right? Then always \u2013 always \u2013<\/em> ask yourself this question \u201cWhat would I do without diabetes on board?\u201d and then do that. Just do it.<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do something. Not week one, maybe not even month one. But once you are settled into the daily life of diabetes (or as settled as we can be with the constant shifts and changes), find a way to make a difference. Ride your bike for research. Walk around a river to fund programs. Help a newly diagnosed family. Raise your hand to be part of a clinical trial. You need to do something for two reasons. First: because this is our community and it\u2019s up to us to make it a better one. Less than 10 percent of the Type 1 diabetes community is actively involved in things like this. Imagine the power toward change we\u2019d have if we each did something<\/em>? It doesn\u2019t have to be a world-record fundraiser. It just has to be something. Second, (and perhaps even more importantly) it empowers you. Volunteering, advocacy, donating, helping \u2026 it all does more for you than it even does for anyone else. Take part is making the diabetes world better and even on your worst blood glucose days, you\u2019ll always be able to remember you are part of forward progress.<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t talk A1C\u2019s with your kids. Ever. Listen, before diabetes, did you take the lab sheet from your child\u2019s annual physical and show them things on it and celebrate numbers? Of course not. A young child does not even need to know what an A1C is, never mind the result of one. I wish I\u2019d known this. Because my bragging and focusing and harping and stressing over that value seeped into my child\u2019s very being. So from the future I tell you: don\u2019t introduce it into your child\u2019s life and ask your endo to share it with you privately. Use more general terms in discussing diabetes results with your child. And when they are older, they can learn it, after they\u2019ve developed a self-esteem not tied to a lab result.<\/p>\n

7)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Redefine \u201cperfection.\u201d In the beginning, there will be much focus on blood glucose ranges. You\u2019ll stress over highs and lows; weeks will be labled \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d based on that and sometimes almost only that. But here\u2019s the thing: perfection does not have a number value, even on a meter. Perfection is your child smiling at the beach, despite that pump hooked on his suit. Perfection is your daughter high fiving her teammates after scoring a soccer goal, even if her blood sugar was low an hour earlier. Perfection is the delicious exhaustion after a long family ski day, no matter what the blood sugars were that day. Perfection is a life well lived, despite diabetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t talk A1C\u2019s with your kids. Ever. Listen, before diabetes, did you take the lab sheet from your child\u2019s annual physical and show them things on it and celebrate numbers? Of course not. A young child does not even need to know what an A1C is, never mind the result of one. I wish I\u2019d known this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":37151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1430],"tags":[20,126],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I Wish I'd Known When my Child was Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don\u2019t talk A1C\u2019s with your kids. Ever. 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